This page contains references and links to all electronic communications among City staff, and between City staff, Norfolk Southern, and the community regarding the establishment and operation of the Ethanol Transloading Facility. The communications, furnished in response to requests made under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, cover the period from June 20, 2006 at 8 a.m. to May 29, 2008, at 5 p.m.

E-mail addresses and telephone numbers have been redacted to protect the privacy of residents and of City staff whose home and mobile phone numbers were included on the communications. To contact City officials or staff, please use the links on the left side of this page, or Contact Us.

Re: ethanol issue

To: Jim Hartmann; Faroll Hamer; Ignacio Pessoa

Subject: Re: ethanol issue

From: Adam Thiel/Alex

Date: 23 May 2008 17:02:35

Bcc:

Cc: Michele Evans; Tony Castrilli

One thing to add is that NS never officially
notified us about their start-up on April 9th; we only knew about it because
we had our fire marshals patrolling and looking for new activity at the
Van Dorn Intermodal Facility. (Based on prior intel suggesting they were
moving ahead with plans to put the transloading operation in service.)
As soon as we found out...the rest is history...

----- Original Message
----- From: Faroll Hamer Sent: 05/23/2008 12:58 PM EDT To: Jim Hartmann; Ignacio Pessoa Subject: ethanol issueJim and Ignacio, I just got a call from
Rob Krupicka. He says that the West Enders are working up a major
head of steam about the ethanol project -- claiming that the City colluded
with the railroad to do this, we knew about it for months, we could have
approached Jim Moran or Jim Web but we chose not to because we wanted it
to happen, etc.

I told Rob that we first heard of the
project several months ago, and that at that time we believed they were
subject to local regulations, in particular that an SUP would be required.
After that, we heard nothing for a number of months, and presumed
that the project was not going forward. When we heard from them again
just a month or so ago, we learned that they were ready to go immediately,
and that in the meantime a new federal decision had been handed down that
preempts local jurisdictions from regulating this type of operation. As
soon as we found out that they were going forward and that we had no jurisdiction,
we put together a City team to make ensure the safety of the community.

Rob suggested that the City might want
to put something out explaining the time line -- that would be your call.